


In Memoriam

by Eiso



Category: Let's Play Cyberpunk Red - Polygon (Web Series)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Hurt No Comfort, Identity Issues, Memory Loss, Multi, Secret Identity, Unhappy Ending, Vang0 Bang0/Burger Chainz/Dapper Dasha - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:09:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26416966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eiso/pseuds/Eiso
Summary: "It really hadn’t been a honeypot mission, V0B0 reflected as they checked the strength of the bindings -- looked good, Dasha, Dapper really didn’t skimp on her work supplies -- but it did make it easier for them to get the advantage they needed to complete their objective. Too bad Burger got caught in the crossfire, but what can you do, there’s always civilian casualties in this kind of thing"a.k.a Why does Vang0 have that garrotte augment anyways?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	In Memoriam

**Author's Note:**

> I blame the pcpr discord for this  
> tw for identity issues, allusions to torture, and minor suicidal ideation

Vang0 flopped across the couch, catching themself on Burger’s arm and throwing their legs across Dasha’s lap, knocking her agent out of her hands to land on the floor.

“Vang0, for fucks sake, give me a bit of warning next time!” Dasha’s words were annoyed but her tone was indulgent and her eyes were soft as she rested her now free hands on Vang0’s shins, not bothering to retrieve her agent as she slumped back onto the couch. “I could have been talking to a client, what if it was a big job?”

“But it wasn’t, you were just making fun of Vang0’s last stream,” Burger pointed out immediately, reflexively wrapping his arms around Vang0 to keep them upright, “you were looping that one clip where they tripped their character off a cliff and editing sad music on top.”

Vang0 relaxed into Burger’s chest and grinned at Dasha. “You were watching my stream? You do love me!”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“Come on, admit it, you loooove me, you have fuzzy feelings for me, you were enjoying watching my content, admit it, admit it --”

“Only two of those statements are true.”

“Good enough for me!” Vang0 bumped their toe into Dasha’s stomach and leaned their head onto Burger’s shoulder, closing their eyes and letting his gasoline-and-metal scent lull them into a catnap, but not before murmuring a quiet “I love you guys too,” under their breath, just quiet enough for plausible deniability later.

~~~~~

V0B0 gasped themself awake, falling off the couch -- couch? what, weren’t they just in headquarters -- in a mess of flailing limbs, kicking Dasha -- Dapper? what, where were they, what was happening -- in the stomach and twisting to avoid Burger’s -- no, wait, what, why were they avoiding him -- grasping arms and -- stop, what were they doing, this wasn’t right -- rolling into a defensive crouch, they released their garotte -- when did they get a garotte, why were they calculating the fastest way to slit a throat -- and held it tight between their hands and crossed their arms -- hey guys, Vang0 Bang0 here with another -- as they prepared to use it -- and this felt familiar, but why did they still feel the urge to say --

“Vang0 Bang0, Vang0 Bang0, Vang0 --”

“Vang0, it’s okay, you’re alright, just focus on me, follow my breathing now, in and out, in and out, in and -- urk!”

Burger collapsed onto the floor, clutching at his chest -- no wait stop no they loved him -- as V0B0 struck him in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him -- and he looked so surprised what were they doing why were they here -- before following up with a swift kick to the head to put him out of the fight for good -- wait, why were they fighting him, he was their friend, they loved him, no, they weren’t friends, he was a threat and they put him down and --

“Vang0 you need to calm down _now_ ,” and that was Dapper’s -- Dasha’s? they loved her too, no no no what was going on, that was, Dapper’s -- voice, and she was holding out one hand placatingly -- she was confused, was that fear in her eyes, Dapper wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything -- but the other was reaching for her gun -- threat threat threat act now -- and V0B0 was moving before they realized it and the gun was pointed at the enemy -- enemy, that’s an enemy you have a job to do get to it soldier -- and her mouth was moving but it wasn’t making any sense -- “Vang0 stop, it’s Dasha, snap out of it! You’re safe, you’re with your family, Vang0 wait” -- and then they _remembered_ and their mind cleared and they took their finger off the trigger and reversed their grip on the gun and she relaxed as the barrel pointed away from her and they pistol whipped her in the temple and she collapsed like a puppet with her strings cut and

Engineer Sergeant V0B0 straightened, smoothed out their shirt, and went to the kitchen to get some duct tape and secure the prisoners.

~~~~~

It really hadn’t been a honeypot mission, V0B0 reflected as they checked the strength of the bindings -- looked good, Dasha, Dapper really didn’t skimp on her work supplies -- but it did make it easier for them to get the advantage they needed to complete their objective. Too bad Burger got caught in the crossfire, but what can you do, there’s always civilian casualties in this kind of thing, and sure, V0B0 would miss having such good backup but Burger was stupidly loyal and probably wouldn’t take kindly to them turning Dapper in to their superiors so really it was for the best that they brought him in as well. V0B0 figured they probably had ten minutes until Burger came to, maybe fifteen for Dapper, so it couldn’t hurt to try to explain to -- his friend? his lover? his -- the man what was going on, maybe offer an apology for what was going to happen to the third member of their trio, but from what V0B0 could remember of the jumbled memories they had of being Vang0 Burger wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, so it probably wasn’t worth the effort in the long run.

Besides, V0B0 didn’t even know why exactly the higher ups were pissed with Dapper, but they weren’t paid to ask questions and they were sure there was a good reason -- of course there was a good reason, there was always a good reason -- even if their commanding officer didn’t always explain it to them. It was for the good of the company. Still, they didn’t gag the prisoners just yet, it would be a while until transport arrived and listening to the inevitable betrayed shouting would be marginally more entertaining than enduring silent, angry glares. Speaking of --

“Vang0? What’s, what’s going on?” Burger’s voice was slurred and his eyes weren’t quite focusing, but he tensed against the tape anyways, becoming more alert as it became obvious he wasn’t going anywhere. “Ha-ha sweetheart, good prank, you can let me go now… Vang0, Vang0 seriously let me go, this isn’t funny,” his struggles were more frantic now as V0B0 glanced up at him passively before refocusing their attention on their agent.

“I don’t owe you an explanation Mr Chainz, please refrain from making too much noise, we wouldn’t want the neighbors to come looking, now.”

“Vang0, what,”

“Do be quiet or I’ll have to gag you, and I don’t really feel like getting up right now.”

“Why are you -- you’re not Vang0. Are you.”

“No.”

Burger’s struggles renewed, becoming more frantic, arms flexing and legs straining and demanding to know, “Where’s Vang0, what did you do to them, I’m gonna kill you just you wait, Dasha’s gonna kill you, Vang0 will get themself out of wherever you stashed them and then we’ll kick your ass all across the city --”

“I _said_ be quiet,” V0B0 rolled their eyes and set their agent aside, aiming Dapper’s gun at Burger with a slight frown, “I actually rather like you so I’d prefer to not have to kill you, but Dapper’s the one we really need alive so if you don’t shut up I’ll have to shut you up, and cleaning blood out of carpet is such a hassle.” Burger didn’t stop growling threats as V0B0 switched the safety off, positioned their finger on the trigger, aimed between his eyes, and --

“Look, if I tell you what happened to Vang0 will you pipe down already?”

Burger closed his mouth.

“Regrettably, Vang0 as you knew them is no more, they were merely a deep cover identity -- full memory wipe, subconscious programming, entirely standard espionage tactics -- you know how it is. If it makes you feel any better about being duped, they didn’t know about it at the time.”

“You’re _lying_.”

Well, that wasn’t Burger’s voice.

V0B0 glanced over to where Dapper was “Finally awake, huh? Excellent timing, I wasn’t going to explain this shit twice, especially not to a mark.”

And that’s all she was, a mark, and Burger was just a civilian casualty, they had to remember that -- why was that so hard, why did the angry tears in Burger’s eyes make something ache in their chest, why did Dasha’s, Dapper’s stubborn denial make something in the back of their mind scream, why were they, no, no, no no no no no _stop it_ \-- She was just a mark.

“Sit tight, transport’s arriving soon enough.”

~~~~~

Their commander was very pleased when V0B0 dumped their prisoners at his feet, limp and unmoving -- they had been sedated after the fifth escape attempt, and no, V0B0 wasn’t supposed to have them sedated from the beginning, they weren’t really a threat anyways, stop thinking about it -- and one debriefing and wired payment later, they were back in their rooms on base, lounging on their bunk and scrolling the company’s intranet to catch themself up on what they missed while they were gone. There had been some drama when the cafeteria had switched the brand of soylent they used, a higher up had quit over a faulty agent, there were uncountable new memes to catch up on, and they had exactly eight emails from the six years they’d been gone -- the yearly auto-generated birthday messages and two petitions to get functioning microwaves in the common rooms.

V0B0 only realized they had navigated to jumptrash when they saw their own face staring up at them from Vang0’s last VOD -- _watch my boyfriend literally kick ass in sixnite: not clickbait!_ \-- and hastily shut off their agent to get ready for bed. It was late, they had paperwork to file tomorrow, and their commander had an appointment with their -- family, that had been their family, that was their family -- prisoners.

~~~~~

V0B0 watched the screen as the interrogator gripped the baton with an ease born from long hours of practice, and their breathing remained perfectly even as the man stood at attention behind Dapper, arm raised to strike.

“What do you know about this man?” Their commander held up a picture of someone V0B0 didn’t recognize, and apparently Dapper didn’t care all that much, because she spat on the ground and cursed him out and demanded to know where Vang0 was and the commander nodded at the interrogator so he swung down with calculated strength and Dapper’s head snapped forward and she swore but didn’t say anything else so he swung again, this time at the back of her neck, and then again, and again, and once more at her head when she managed to raise it to glare at their commander with unfocused eyes.

“I don’t know who the fuck that is, asshole, where have you taken Vang0?”

“We know you worked a job with him back in ‘36, who did he give the information to?”

“Fuck off, I’ve never seen him before in my life, you idiots must have got the wrong person -- Listen, tell me where Vang0 is, let me and Burger go, and we can forget this ever happened.”

“I’ll be back in a few hours, let me know then if you feel like talking.”

The commander walked out of the room, and the interrogator moved over to a table full of implements that V0B0 knew he knew exactly how to use, how to make someone hurt without passing out, how to do just enough damage to not be irreversible, and they really should stop watching, but as they momentarily switched their agent over to check on Burger -- pacing in his cell, unharmed but stressed as he waited for Dapper to return, hands twitching with what they knew was the urge to punch someone until whatever problem he was facing resolved itself -- V0B0 knew they couldn’t look away, so they watched --

As the interrogator brought out the shock baton and Dapper didn’t know anything,

As he picked up the pliers and Dapper didn’t know anything.

As he switched to a knife and Dapper didn’t know anything.

As he picked up a syringe of what they knew was a particularly nasty hallucinogenic and Dapper didn’t know anything.

And she didn’t know anything.

And she didn’t know anything.

And she didn’t know anything.

And she didn’t know anything so they dumped her back in the cell and Burger held her in his lap and brushed the hair out of her eyes and cried as his hands fluttered over her wounds but he couldn’t do anything to help and she murmured something V0B0 couldn’t make out as she slipped into unconsciousness and _she didn’t know anything_ so their superiors would probably just kill her and

V0B0 threw their agent away and dropped their head into their hands and for a long time focused on just breathing.

~~~~~

They held the drive in violently shaking hands. They couldn’t get the image of Dapper -- Dasha, her name was Dasha and they knew her and they loved her -- out of their mind, kept seeing her sat slumped in that chair with blood running down her face and a knife in her shoulder, kept seeing Burger cradling her in his arms, kept imagining her body being dumped in some back alley to be found by the next passerby, pictured Burger’s cold form lying beside her, and this had all been for nothing she didn’t know anything they had gotten the wrong person how could they have done this they had loved her they loved him and they had been so happy and maybe this was wrong but they wanted the lie back, they missed being Vang0 and it would be so easy to fix this, they had to fix this, they would fix this.

Two lines of code to erase the kill orders on Dasha and Burger. A few hours of editing to make video evidence of Vang0 being held separately somewhere, they’d make sure the others ran into it when V0B0 was orchestrating their escape. A few minutes to fake a release order to allow themself to resign. Two hours to get themself to wherever their partner’s could find them. And one click of the button to reset the last few days, to _fix_ this.

This wouldn’t be dying -- it wouldn’t, V0B0 would just stop existing, is all, and sure it would be permanent this time but it wasn’t dying, they would keep breathing, their heart would keep beating, it wasn’t dying -- it would just be falling asleep, is all. V0B0 would close their eyes and someone else would open them, is all -- and wouldn’t that be better anyways? they’d hurt their partners, their family, they’d made Burger cry, they’d let Dasha _bleed_ , they deserved to -- they would just be stepping back and allowing someone better to fill the void, is all. They never should have woken up in the first place, is all. They never should have remembered themself, is all. They shouldn’t exist, is all. It wouldn’t be dying.

~~~~~

Vang0 blinked awake in a dark cell, not quite sure what was going on. Their last memory was of falling asleep on Burger’s lap as he and Dasha played sixnite, and now they were -- stripped to their underwear and chained to a wall?

“Burger? Dasha? You guys there?”

Nothing.

They tested their handcuffs, but no way they were getting out of here on their own when they were chained up naked in an empty room, so they let their head fall back against the wall and settled down to wait.

It took a few hours, but it wasn’t really that long before they heard an explosion somewhere above them, and --

“Now that’s either really good news, or _really_ bad news.”

Dasha’s angry voice was audible from what had to be at least two floors up, and there was a crashing noise that could only be Burger breaking a chair over someone’s head, and footsteps on a flight of stairs, and keys jingling, and then the door was creaking open and there were their partners, looking quite a bit worse for wear, and they were rushing to Vang0’s side and they were so glad to see them and really it

“Took you guys long enough, there’s not even any wifi here!”

And Dasha was unchaining them and Burger was holding them and they were all exchanging relieved kisses and Vang0 was still very confused but they were with their family and they'd be out of here and back to Dasha's apartment soon enough so really everything was going to be okay.


End file.
